As the number of wireless cellular data communication devices continues to increase and as their data capabilities continue to be more and more heavily used, the demands on available infrastructure and frequencies continue to increase. The addition of infrastructure to meet demand is costly, and is becoming more and more difficult as unoccupied space suitable for placement of base stations diminishes. In addition, as saturation of available wireless communication frequencies approaches, addition of conventional infrastructure approaches a point of ineffectiveness.
In order to support the growing demand for data communication services, therefore, network operators are turning more and more to managing existing resources, particularly frequency resources, so as to increase the number of users served by the resources. One approach to increasing the number of users is the deployment of small radius cells, also known as femtocells, in an area defined by a larger cell, or macrocell. Numerous femtocells may be deployed by homes and business, which direct traffic in their vicinity to an Internet connection. In addition, cellular network operators may themselves deploy femtocells in the vicinity of a macrocell, to take on traffic that would otherwise be supported by the macrocell. A macrocell may be defined as the coverage, of a macro base station, which may be implemented as an eNodeB or eNB. A femtocell may be defined as the coverage of a lower power base station or femto access point, which may be implemented as a femto eNB. Dense deployment of femto base stations to create a dense arrangement of femtocells can substantially increase the coverage that may be provided by allowing the reuse of frequencies within a macro cell.